For a chance to win, comment this post with the answer of this question : "Where did Phish tour during summers 1997 and 1998 for the last time to date ?"

You can Tweet this to maximize your chance :

Giveaway of the new #Phish 6 CD boxset Ventura on http://www.bouncingaroundeuroom.eu @YomeNetSan

Don't forget to include the link to your tweet in your comment.

The winner will be randomly choosen among comments and tweets made between now and Friday 21th June 13:00 (France time). If the winner wants only one of the two prices or if he choose to let someone else win, I'll pick up a second winner for the remaining prize !

This contest is open to european residents only.

All new 6-CD box set featuring two complete live shows, recorded July 30, 1997 and July 20, 1998 at Ventura County Fairgrounds in Ventura, California, a general admission dirt racetrack between the Pacific Coast Highway and Surfers Point Park. Bits of the each show's Soundchecks are included at the end of both shows.

The new box set was fully remixed from the band's multitrack masters and mastered for release. July 30, 1997 was Phish's first Ventura stop since Trey learned to surf nearby in 1993. The show featured a number of must-hear performances including a bass-driven, syncopated "Wolfman's Brother" > "Chalk Dust Torture", a deep and spacey "Stash" and "Character Zero" in Set I. A "Free" > "David Bowie" > "Cities" > "David Bowie" combination dominated the show's second half with some of the summer's biggest jams.

On July 20, 1998 Phish again encountered Ventura's breezy oceanside. Ventura '98 was characterized by some new songs and some bustouts. The first set included a "Bathtub Gin" opener, a new arrangement of "Water In The Sky", the swinging funk of "The Moma Dance" and a "Split Open And Melt" Set I closer. Set II exploded with a bass-and-drums-fueled "Drowned" > "Makisupa Policeman" pairing that utilized Page's synth stylings to seamlessly blend rock and reggae. "Maze" led to a perfectly placed "Sea And Sand".

The answer to the question was quite simple : The summer tour 98 was nicknammed "Summer of covers" because the band played a brand new and unique cover each night.

You were 4 to post the correct answer in the comments here. 2 more dvd were given on my french website Gamusik with the exact same question but there was no answer at all ! So instead of choosing 2 winners among the 4 who entered here, I declare everyone's a winner ! So Robert, Dan, Maui and Marko, you'll get an email from me soon.

Meanwhile, I watched the concert last sunday and it was a pleasure to seen my 3 years old son dancing to the music ! But I must admit he was better impressed by the cover art of the boxset. He thought the bridges was for trains and he tried to put the disc in the player on his own... The disc ended stuck really deep inside the player and I had to open it completely to get it back ! Hopefully the dvd wasn't broken and he really enjoyed the menu with the cars on the bridges !

Oh yeah, the show is great with a 35 minutes Runaway Jim and a marvelous Reba ! The video quality is better than you would expect from a VHS source and it's really band focused with very few full stage view.

The new Phish dvd release is in the house ! Star Lake 98 came earlier than my regular order thanks to Beth from Phish Inc.

I'll have what might be the first listening party in Europe this weekend at home !

And like it's now an habit, I have 2 of them to give here and 2 more on my other French music and gaming webiste Gamusik.

Feel free to enter on both !

For a chance to win, comment this post with the answer of this question : "How was nicknamed the Phish Summer tour 1998 and why ?"

You can Tweet this to maximize your chance :

Unboxing and Giveaway of the new #Phish dvd Star Lake 98 on http://www.bouncingaroundeuroom.eu @YomeNetSan

Don't forget to include the link to your tweet in your comment.

The winner will be randomly choosen among comments and tweets made between now and Friday 7th December 13:00 (France time). This contest is open to european residents only.

On August 11, 1998 Phish played at Star Lake Amphitheatre in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. This was their second visit to Star Lake of seven to-date starting in 1997 and including 2003, 2009 and 2012 shows previously released at LivePhish.com.

The Star Lake 98 show was the 20th of summer to showcase the loose, experimental vibe of a tour that began in Europe and jumped to the United States enroute to the summer’s ending Lemonwheel festival. The introduction of a never-before-played cover each night earned the tour the nickname “summer of covers” from fans and Star Lake’s contribution was a Trench Town Rock opener. Star Lake also saw the return of Time Loves A Hero which was played for the first time in a decade and segued out of a sultry Wolfman’s Brother. Julius, an extended Fee outro (during which hip Pittsburghians clapped along on the 2 and 4) and deep renditions of Maze and Reba set the stage for set II. The second set featured a super-swinging, ethereal Runaway Jim that foreshadowed 2011’s Storage Jam and an unusual pairing of Meat > Limb By Limb. Local flavor of the Commonwealth was provided by Bittersweet Motel (the title of the Phish documentary recorded during Europe ’98 dates) and Wilson, King of Prussia.

Star Lake 98 is the only full show available as video from summer 1998. The 2-DVD set was created from archival VHS videotapes of the 3-camera lawn screen feed. The audio was mixed from multi-track masters in stereo PCM and 5.1 surround. It will be released on DVD and digital audio download December 11 on JEMP Records.

Jam in the Dam is just around the corner and I can't wait ! I'll try to write during the festival but I can't garantee. Of course, you'll have a full review afterwards.

Anyway, it's time to announce what's behind those fancy cards. It will be a way to promote the blog while I'm in Amsterdam but not only. As you noticed, there's a QR Code on one side. This code is a link to this site using Goo.gl. My initial plan was to detect those who come here from this link but, unfortunatly, it's not possible with this kind of redirection... And as I can't re-print the cards with another QR Code, I had to find another way.

So that's why there's a button on the right column that leads to a form to enter the contest.

Because, yes, there's a contest.

All you have to do is enter the end of the link encoded on the QR Code to participate. If you can upload a picture of the actual card you found in Amsterdam (or elsewhere) you have a second chance to win !

Winners will be randomly choosen among valid emails received from the contest form between now and Monday 30th April 20:00 (France time). An eMail is valid if it contains the right QR Code. An eMail counts twice if it contains a picture of the card. If several eMails are received from the same IP address, they will be deleted. This contest is open for European residents only.

Here are the results for last week contest which consisted of answering a bunch of Phishrelated questions. The price was the new double DVD/CD Live in Utica. You'll find bellow the correct answers (green) along with some pieces of detail and the name of the winner.

"Sexual Healing"Ben Harper has also covered this song as presented in his live album "Live From Mars"

"Something"Covered by k's Choice during their 2000 tour, as a tribute to George Harrison

"Take Me Out"Name for a Mike Gordon and Franz Ferdinand song

"Hand In My Pocket"A song by Alanis Morissette covered by Mike Gordon's solo band

What is special about those two shows (speaking of "reprise", the french word for "cover") :6/18/10 and 6/19/10

"Tweezer Reprise"In Ted's words : Hartford had the double Tweezer Reprise (back to back Tweezer Reprises in the encore), and the very next night at SPAC they opened and closed the show with Tweezer Reprise! Classic Phishiness!

"The Dark Side of the Moon"In Ted's words : In '98 everybody thought they were going to do "Dark Side" in Vegas for Halloween, but they did "Loaded" by the Velvet Underground instead. A couple of days later, on 11/2/98 in Salt Lake City, Utah, the arena was only half full. In the second set, out of nowhere Phish played a "Harpua" that went into a full rendition of Dark Side of the Moon! Craziness!

The winner is Ted, a reader living in Grenoble, France. He sent me very detailed answers for every question and was radomly picked.

You can still watch several excepts from the DVD (almost all set 1) along with other HD video from current tour on the Vimeo Phish page.LivePhish.com also provide two great live compilations to download here : Live Bait Volume 3 and Live Bait Volume 4.

I have the new double DVD/CD from Phish, Live in Utica, to offer to the winner a this little contest. The combo is released today in the USA.

All you have to do is answer the following question by using the contact page (don't answer in the comments). I'll pick up the winner at random in answers I'll got here and on Gamusik. Answers has to be sent before the may 31th 23h59 (french time). Don't hesitate to sens partial or multiple answers. I'll trim them to the last one. This contest id open to european residents only.

Questions are about songs Phish have (or ahaven't) covered. Maybe you'll learn funny things about the best band in the world, who know ? Don't be affraid, there's nothing complicated and don't forget that Google is your friend...

Which of these songs has never been covered by Phish ?

"Waterloo" (ABBA)

"Sabotage" (Beastie Boys)

"99 Problems" (Jay-Z)

"Gettin' Jiggy With It" (Will Smith)

"I Kissed a Girl" (Katy Perry)

"Mmm Bop" (Hanson)

Which of these songs is covered by Phish a cappela ?

"Bohemian Rhapsody" (Queen)

"Free Bird" (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

"Auld Lang Syne" (Traditional)

"The Great Gig In The Sky" (Pink Floyd)

"Big Pimpin'" (Jay-Z)

When Phish cover these songs, which instrument does the drummer use in his solo ?

"Purple Rain" (Prince)

"Love You" (Syd Barrett)

"Sexual Healing" (Marvin Gaye)

"Gettin' Jiggy With It" (Will Smith)

"Bike" (Pink Floyd)

Which of these video games has the same name of a Phish cover song ?

Portal

Gran Turismo

Spore

Haunted Castle

Wipeout

Ben Harper, k's Choice, Franz Ferdinand, Alanis Morissette and Phish both have played (at least once) a song having the same name, but which one of these ?

"Walk Away"

"Sexual Healing"

"Something"

"Take Me Out"

"Hand In My Pocket"

What is special about those two shows (speaking of "reprise", the french word for "cover") :